Faculty Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture

Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture

This 2-day intensive course will occur on June 17 & 18, 2014 in the beautiful LEED Platinum Bosarge Family Education Center and also on the grounds of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

As part of the required curriculum for students, I’ll be teaching Gardening for Wildlife: Ecosystem Gardening. CMBG describes my contribution:

Habitat loss is the number one cause of declining wildlife populations. In this Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens class on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 17 and 18, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, conservation biologist Carole Sevilla Brown, will teach you why gardening for wildlife is as important as it is rewarding. She will explain how, by incorporating certain native plants and gardening practices, you can create welcoming habitat in your garden to attract more birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other wildlife, conserve natural resources, and encourage biodiversity. In the classroom and in the gardens, Carole will provide examples for creating a lively (and lived-in!) garden habitat.

Carole Sevilla Brown is the author of the Ecosystem Gardening blog and website and founder and managing editor of the team blogs Beautiful Wildlife Garden and Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. A conservation biologist by training, she has spent more than 20 years as a consultant designing, installing and maintaining wildlife gardens for people who want to share their space with birds, butterflies, frogs and toads, bats, reptiles and amphibians, and yes even insects! She firmly believes that conservation begins in your own backyard and is passionate about teaching people to become stewards of their properties.

The exciting news is that you don’t have to be enrolled in the Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture to attend this exciting 2-day intensive workshop. Check out this page to register: Gardening for Wildlife: Ecosystem Gardening

Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture

The field-based Certificate in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture program instructs amateur and professional gardeners alike about Maine’s diverse flora and its uses in ecologically responsible horticulture. The program is tailored for Maine gardeners by featuring the climate conditions, specific challenges, plants, and natural communities found right here in the Pine Tree State.

Students benefit from engaging, hands-on courses describing native plants, how they function and reproduce, their natural habitats, and best garden applications. They discover how plants interact with their growing environment, and they learn to select appropriate native plants for various site conditions. They will become skilled at preparing and maintaining gardens using sustainable methods such as composting, integrated and organic pest management, and low water inputs

Growing for Pollinators: 10th Annual Garden Symposium, with Carole Sevilla Brown, William Cullina, and Dr. Frank Drummond

I’ll be following up this 2-day intensive workshop on Ecosystem Gardening for Wildlife by also speaking at the Growing for Pollinators Symposium with William Cullina and Frank Drummond.

I’d so love to meet you in person in either event!

Faculty: Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture

Bill Cullina

Executive Director Bill Cullina previously served as Director of Horticulture for the Gardens and before that was Nursery Director for the New England Wild Flower Society. He is a well-known author and recognized authority on North American native plants. He lectures on a variety of subjects to garden and professional groups and writes for popular and technical journals. His books include:

Lois Berg Stack

Dr. Lois Berg Stack is the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Ornamental Horticulture Specialist. She conducts applied research and organizes workshops and conferences for nursery, greenhouse, garden center and landscape professionals in Maine and New England. Some of her current projects focus on plants that support native bees and honeybees, and production of chokeberry as a nutraceutical crop. She also works extensively with home gardeners on landscape topics such as management of invasive species and selection and management of Maine landscape plants.

Lauren Stockwell

Certificate Program instructor Lauren Stockwell is a botanist and environmental consultant. Her business, Stockwell Environmental Consulting, Inc. provides comprehensive environmental services including natural resource identification, resource evaluation, and related permitting. She has led many botanical field walks and has taught several prior classes at the Gardens.

Melissa Cullina

Melissa Cullina is Director of Education & Staff Botanist for Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Formerly Botanist with the Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, Cullina specializes in aquatic and coastal botany, field identification, and rare species conservation.

Ted Elliman

Ecologist Ted Elliman is currently Vegetation Management Coordinator for the New England Wild Flower Society, where for the past five years he and his dedicated corps of volunteers have located, documented, and controlled invasive species in natural areas for land trusts, conservation organizations, and state agencies across the New England landscape. In his present position, he also conducts botanical inventories, rare-plant and natural-community documentation. Previously, Ted worked as a contract ecologist for the National Park Service and several other agencies doing rare-plant and natural-community surveys and invasive-management projects on the Appalachian Trail (from Maine to Pennsylvania) and the Boston Harbor Islands. He has been a natural history tour guide to western China for the last 15 years.

Irene Brady Barber

Irene Brady Barber is currently both a landscape designer for Cosmic Stone & Garden Supply and a seasonal horticultural educator at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. With an academic and professional background in both communications (human behavior) and horticulture studies, Irene is working to complete a professional certification in the field of horticultural therapy, which is the focus of much of her teaching at the Gardens.

Lisa Cowan

Lisa Cowan, PLA, principal of Studioverde, with offices in Cumberland, Maine, and Austin, Texas, is a nationally recognized landscape architect with expertise in ecology-based planning, landscape design and land management. Lisa is an officer in the American Society of Landscape Architects Sustainable Design and Development Professional Practice Network and has been writing and lecturing on the design of beautiful, high-performance landscapes and the new Sustainable Sites Initiative rating system. Lisa’s work includes the design of the landscape art feature at the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Bangor, Maine; a LEED Gold residential landscape in Falmouth, Maine; a scenic overlook in Trenton, Maine; and an extensive portfolio of ecological design and construction methodologies for wetland, riparian and upland restoration.

Justin Nichols

Staff Horticulturist Justin Nichols has been professionally maintaining gardens for more than 20 years, the last six here at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. He has a master’s degree in education and enjoys teaching horticultural topics to people of all ages.